Artist Park Chan-kyong is the subject of the solo exhibition Park Chan-kyong: Gathering, on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C., USA. Marking the inaugural exhibition in the National Museum of Asian Art’s modern and contemporary galleries, the exhibition opens as the museum celebrates its centennial year. The show is the artist's first solo exhibition at a major American museum.

The Seoul-based artist has garnered international recognition for his use of photography and film to examine the complex history of modern Korea. The works in this exhibition are a testament to his ongoing artistic endeavors. Citizen's Forest (2016) is a panoramic 3-channel video work that draws on the poetry of Kim Su-yeong (1921–68), Korean Minjung painting, and folk culture to reflect on major tragedies in South Korea’s modern history. In this poetic video filled with metaphors and allusions, Park expresses condolences to the nameless souls who perished during the tragic events of Korean history, including the Donghak Peasant Revolution (1894), Korean War (1950–53), Gwangju Democratic Uprising (1980), and the Sewol ferry disaster (2014).

Also on view is another significant work titled Belated Bosal (2019). The video work revolves around the themes of Buddha's Nirvana and the catastrophic radioactive leak in Fukushima. The majority of the images in the video are shot in black-and-white negative, reminiscent of autoradiography, a technique used to visualize radiation exposure. Based on a specific Buddhist narrative, the film reflects Park's ideas on challenging conventional situations, depicting a silent form of hospitality and a time when traditional narratives cease to be effective.

The exhibition presents a total of five works that closely trace the enduring traces of tradition, history, and disaster in contemporary society. Among them is Child Soldier (2017), a series of still and moving image portraits reimagining the presence of a lonely North Korean soldier. Also featured is Fukushima: Autoradiography (2019), illustrating the consequences of ecological disasters through negative images and natural landscapes. Park Chan-kyong: Gathering continues until October 13, 2024.